about RAM Disk

[agent47sa]

I've read a little about RAM Disk and from what i understood, a RAM Disk is a makeshift hard drive that functions like an SSD, way faster.
1) Does using RAM Disk have any effect on my SSD (512 GB with OS and Programs)?
2) I have 16 GB RAM. What should be my page file and RAM Disk size while still having enough RAM to play high end games.
3) If i install heavy programs like video editors and photoshop that do a lot of writing on my RAM Disk, is that OK with the SSD?
4) An SSD wears out under heavy usage. What about a RAM Disk?
5) Can a RAM Disk substitute an SSD? Include your personal experiences.
6) Which is better for cache/temp using programs, SSD or RAM Disk (also, including other factors such a durability, apart from speed)
7) Here is a software: http://memory.dataram.com/products-and-services/software/ramdisk . Has anyone used it yet. Do I need a special software to manage my RAM Disk or just do it manually?
8) This article suggests that SSD is better than RAM Disk esp. because a RAM Disk is limited.
If the RAM Disk doesn't have drawbacks like SSD wearing out by excessive writing, should i use it for cache.

 

[mbarnes86]

Hi

The obvious difference is SSD retains data when shutting down PC
RAM disk does not
There may be applications which would benefit from one or two GB of RAM disk but buying 64 GB or more SSD would be better in most cases

Regards
Mike Barnes

 

[random stalker]

1, no
2, 8+8
3, yes, it is OK. Personally I used RamDisk back in the time I messed a bit with videos as a temp / editing drive, because my HDD was a bit slow for that. Could imagine that as a temp file for photoshop too. But for programs, I'd rather go with a SSD.
4, nope - basically what wears down your ssd is writing crap to it. RAM is kinda immune to that.
5, from what I remember it was a bit faster than my SSD. Can't compare head to head, because I don't feel the need for a RamDisk now. But no - It can not substitute a SSD, because a, it is highly volatile and b, it has small capacity.
6, personally I vote for RamDisk.
7, nope. Can't help you on that program. But usually you can access your RamDisk as any normal drive.
8, dunno, if my 5 cents matter - SSD is bigger, cheaper, secure, and easier to manage. And in case of sudden power outage anything stored on a RamDisk is fubard. Play around for a while and see for yourself if it is worth for you. For most people it may be useless now that SSDs are way too common. Back in the days we had only RamDisk VS HDD and then the winner was clear. Especially if you had much RAM to spare.

 

[agent47sa]

1, no
2, 8+8
3, yes, it is OK. Personally I used RamDisk back in the time I messed a bit with videos as a temp / editing drive, because my HDD was a bit slow for that. Could imagine that as a temp file for photoshop too. But for programs, I'd rather go with a SSD.
4, nope - basically what wears down your ssd is writing crap to it. RAM is kinda immune to that.
5, from what I remember it was a bit faster than my SSD. Can't compare head to head, because I don't feel the need for a RamDisk now. But no - It can not substitute a SSD, because a, it is highly volatile and b, it has small capacity.
6, personally I vote for RamDisk.
7, nope. Can't help you on that program. But usually you can access your RamDisk as any normal drive.
8, dunno, if my 5 cents matter - SSD is bigger, cheaper, secure, and easier to manage. And in case of sudden power outage anything stored on a RamDisk is fubard. Play around for a while and see for yourself if it is worth for you. For most people it may be useless now that SSDs are way too common. Back in the days we had only RamDisk VS HDD and then the winner was clear. Especially if you had much RAM to spare.

1,3,4 and 6) I thought so.
2) Isn't 8 GB to much for scratch?
5) yeah, sometimes they are faster than SSD, let alone the lesser writes on SSD.
7) How to create a RAM Disk with Windows 8 and 8.1, not other software?
8) Should i care about smaller RAM Disk as long as I am using it for Scratch? i don't think so
as for volatility, we can enable auto save before shutdown. and there won't be no sudden shutdown because i am using a laptop.

9) I noticed my brother's laptop (win 8) resumes some tasks like "copying"
even after a low battery shutdown. What is this feature called? How to enable it on both PC and Laptop?
Do we really need it when we have an SSD as boot drive? how does it function if i have that process's temp saved on RAM Disk (creating an image before each shutdown)

 

[random stalker]

2, Well, 8GB RAM is enough for decent gaming. That's the main reason why I decided on 8+8. You could go 12+4 if you wish to...

7, You will need special software - for the drivers and for the partition management. Those drivers will emulate special interface that will act to the system about the same way as SATA, SAS or USB. And those drivers dedicate which part of memory acts as a 'standard' drive.

8, Dunno. You can try, but in most of the cases it is obsolete using a RamDrive, but as I said, you're welcome to try.

9, start>power options>change power plan/edit plan settings>advanced settings>battery>critical battery
there you can set what shall be done once battery dies. If you send it to 'sleep' it suspends everything to RAM and can resume your work fast, in 'hibernation' it saves memory to drive and resumes slowly any task it was before the battery died. IMHO it is a useful feature.
For RamDisk - RAM is volatile, which means it needs to be powered at all times. Once the power is interrupted, all data is lost. 'Sleep' mode should keep the RAM powered, 'hibernation' shuts it off.

 

[agent47sa]

2, Well, 8GB RAM is enough for decent gaming. That's the main reason why I decided on 8+8. You could go 12+4 if you wish to...

7, You will need special software - for the drivers and for the partition management. Those drivers will emulate special interface that will act to the system about the same way as SATA, SAS or USB. And those drivers dedicate which part of memory acts as a 'standard' drive.

8, Dunno. You can try, but in most of the cases it is obsolete using a RamDrive, but as I said, you're welcome to try.

9, start>power options>change power plan/edit plan settings>advanced settings>battery>critical battery
there you can set what shall be done once battery dies. If you send it to 'sleep' it suspends everything to RAM and can resume your work fast, in 'hibernation' it saves memory to drive and resumes slowly any task it was before the battery died. IMHO it is a useful feature.
For RamDisk - RAM is volatile, which means it needs to be powered at all times. Once the power is interrupted, all data is lost. 'Sleep' mode should keep the RAM powered, 'hibernation' shuts it off.

2) 3 GB for RAMDisk and 1 for page file (i learned that it shouldn't be disabled, but can be limited if one has a lot of RAM).
7) I just used the most common RAMDisk software by DATARam. http://apcmag.com/boost-performance-with-a-ram-drive.htm#null . By doing things according to this article, i achieved more than twice the speed for my hard drive (maybe because i put system temp in it, the whole system has went faster, instead of just the RAMDisk)
8) They sure save my SSD a lot of writes, esp. since i have the browser cache, and both system and user temp on just 512 MB RAMDisk while it remains 75% empty (i save the image). I was just wondering, do i even need a RAMDisk of that much GBs. I have no Photoshop type programs yet but i don't think they will need that much GBs for scratch?
9) Now i have a little idea what it is about, so I'll gather more information. yup, seems cool to me too


10) My browsers cache is stored on it. My browser doesn't delete cache and restores pages after sudden shutdown or crash, if i don't have save feature enabled on RAMDisk, that means all the cache will be gone at shutdown no matter what the browser settings say? Is this the only reason for which i should enable auto save save, (slows down the shutdown and reboot a little). What if I lose sys.temp. will it become obsolete. because normally (on HDD) sys temp isn't deleted at shutdown, is it? What if i lose it when the pc is on, do i have to restart?

 

[ifIwasarichman]

I have been using Primo ramdisk on and off for a while due to the speed increase. It allows variable automatically adjusting usage size depending on what is in it and it stores the info at shut down to be there upon start-up.
I have 32GB on my gaming machine and it rips with games loaded onto ramdisk. But it is great for all those temporary and work in progress files and folders to lengthen a SSD's life. I use it also on my NUC which has no hdd, just a msata with 16GB ram and it is my media center. Again to get more life out of the msata (I can load movies and other files onto the randisk and when I turn the PC off, it only saves for reloading what I want.
If you check out these forum links (1/ http://www.overclock.net/t/1381131/ramdisks-roundup-and-testing and 2/ http://www.overclock.net/t/1470905/ramdisks-roundup-and-testing-v2-automated-install-guide#post_21877924 ) to a whole range of ramdisk software and included are test results of speed increases when using them. This should help anyone wanting to use this type of program. Probably the first thing you will notice is that there can be big differences between the different programs and their abilities. Plus you may have to pay for the best features. I do not know of any ssd that gets up to 5000MB/s plus read and write speeds. You can pay over $20,000 (HGST FlashMAX II 4800GB PCIe Enterprise SSD) for a PCIe ssd setup that will only give you less than half the read speed and about one seventh the write speed but it does have a 4.8 TB storage size (always pros and cons). And that high ramdisk speed is only with DDR3 ram. What would you achieve with 128GB DDR4 high speed ram?
I also use a UPS on anything running ramdisk (laptops excluded), I have a 2000VA on my gaming PC due to it's large power usage (triple crossfire, watercooling, and many fans) and only a small power brick 350VA on the NUC. This is to allow me to safely shut down when a sudden power loss occurs (ramdisk's worst problem).
It definitely still has a place to be used, but to get the best out of it you need to learn what are the pros and cons of the program you are using and whether you are willing to pay to get the better features and accessories.